Is "Collaborative Governance" or "Competitive Collusion" the effect of cross-ownership on corporate innovation

Purpose - Using Chinese A-share listed firms between 2007 and 2020 with 21,380 observations, we aim to examine the impact of cross-ownership on firms' innovation output and explore the underlying mechanisms. Design/methodology/approach - To test the influence of cross-ownership on firms' innovation output, this paper constructs an ordinary least square regression model. The explained variables are firms' innovation output, including the total number of patent applications (Apply) and the number of invention patent applications (Apply_I). Considering the long period of patent R&D, we take the value of the explained variables in the following year for regression. Cross-ownership (Cross) is the explanatory variable; Control is the control variable; and ε is the regression residual term. Findings - We find that cross-ownership significantly promotes corporate innovation output, indicating that cross-owners play an important role in "collaborative governance." This finding remains unchanged after conducting a series of robustness tests. We also find that cross-ownership contributes to innovation output mainly through two plausible channels: the relaxation of financing constraints and reducing both types of agency costs. Further analysis shows that cross-ownership has a more pronounced influence on innovation output in those firms with higher equity restriction ratios and facing more competitive markets. Moreover, cross-ownership has a profound impact on firms' innovation quality and innovation efficiency, thereby increasing firm value. Research limitations/implications - This study provides important policy implications. First, cross-owners should actively play their resource and supervision advantages to improve firms' long-term development capability through the "collaborative governance" effect. Second, listed companies in China should be fully aware of the value of the cross-ownership and use the cross-ownership as a bridge to strengthen the cooperative relationship with firms in the same portfolio. Meanwhile, they need to pay attention to cross-ownership's "collaborative governance" effect to provide an impetus for the healthy development of enterprises. Finally, government regulators should maintain appropriate supervision of the cross-ownership linkage in the market. Originality/value - Our findings show that cross-ownership significantly contributes to firms' innovation output, indicating that cross-owners play the role of "collaborative governance." While paying attention to the collusion effect of the cross-ownership, they shall not ignore its governance effect, for example, the promotion effect on the innovation level. Government regulators should appropriately supervise the cross-ownership linkage, which is conducive to maintaining the market order and driving the healthy development of the capital market.